From the early Christian Church to contemporary cinema, the cardinal sins have been a popular theme in art and literature. While some films use the sins merely for entertainment value, others use them to convey powerful messages about human nature and society. The latter type includes The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989), using the sins to strengthen its political criticism. Set design is a crucial component of the film that adds depth and purpose to the story. Director Peter Greenaway and set designers Ben van Os and Jan Roelfs create a baroque ambiance that appeals to the subconscious and enhances the overall tone of the movie. They have done so by drawing inspiration from art history and painting principles. Props, composition, color, and texture all contribute to create a consistent visual style that conveys the film’s message. The deliberate emphasis on immorality and sin in the film serves as a passionate commentary on the political state of the United Kingdom in the 1980s, and the set design plays a crucial role in conveying this message visually.

The Methods of Analysis and Imagination graduation studio 2023-2024 focuses on A Matter of Scale, in the North-eastern European city of Tallinn. As we were free to synthesize an in-depth site-analysis of the city with our own fascinations, I decided on exploring the Estonian nightlife. I discovered that club culture was not embraced by the city’s regulations, but quite the opposite: it was pushed back. This inspired me to design a nightclub on a vacant industrial site, of which plenty is to be found in Tallinn. My choice fell upon the Balti Manufactory Quarter, a former cotton factory with its iconic chimney and monumental masonry. It’s industrial lay-out is on its way to be taken over by nature, and first plans to regenerate the area with conventional generic housing typologies are explored. My stance in this however, is to convert the site into a cultural center for the neighborhood. By clearly prioritizing culture over a strict residential use, I give back space to the sub-cultural community who loses their spaces to gentrified neighborhoods. Furthermore, by being a cultural center, the Quarter will become a catalyst for new forms of urban cultural development: in which living, working, and leisure coexist. The Quarter is fit to accommodate this, as it is imbedded in the urban fabric and well connected to Tallinn’s infrastructure. Other than that, there is enough distance between the complex and its surrounding residential neighborhood for nightlife to flourish, whilst the plot can function as a city park during the day. The nightclub is located in the former boiler room, a separate complex next to the old factory building. And just how the boiler room used to fuel the cotton factory, my nightclub will become the nocturnal heart of the new center for culture, creation, and living.

The Methods of Analysis and Imagination graduation studio 2023-2024 focuses on A Matter of Scale, in the North-eastern European city of Tallinn. As we were free to synthesize an in-depth site-analysis of the city with our own fascinations, I decided on exploring the Estonian nightlife. I discovered that club culture was not embraced by the city’s regulations, but quite the opposite: it was pushed back. This inspired me to design a nightclub on a vacant industrial site, of which plenty is to be found in Tallinn. My choice fell upon the Balti Manufactory Quarter, a former cotton factory with its iconic chimney and monumental masonry. It’s industrial lay-out is on its way to be taken over by nature, and first plans to regenerate the area with conventional generic housing typologies are explored. My stance in this however, is to convert the site into a cultural center for the neighborhood. By clearly prioritizing culture over a strict residential use, I give back space to the sub-cultural community who loses their spaces to gentrified neighborhoods. Furthermore, by being a cultural center, the Quarter will become a catalyst for new forms of urban cultural development: in which living, working, and leisure coexist. The Quarter is fit to accommodate this, as it is imbedded in the urban fabric and well connected to Tallinn’s infrastructure. Other than that, there is enough distance between the complex and its surrounding residential neighborhood for nightlife to flourish, whilst the plot can function as a city park during the day. The nightclub is located in the former boiler room, a separate complex next to the old factory building. And just how the boiler room used to fuel the cotton factory, my nightclub will become the nocturnal heart of the new center for culture, creation, and living.